International Journal of Emerging Science and Engineering (IJESE)
ISSN: 2319–6378, Volume-1, Issue-4, February 2013
File Encryption and Decryption Using
Secure RSA
Rajan.S.Jamgekar, Geeta Shantanu Joshi
Abstract-In this paper we have introduced secure RSA for
secure file transmission. There are many cases where we need
secure file transmission for example in banking transactions, e-
shopping etc [4]. In this paper we present modified RSA
algorithm for secure file transmission. RSA algorithm is
asymmetric key cryptography also called Public Key
cryptography. Two keys are generated in RSA, one key is used for
encryption &other key which is only known to authenticated
receiver can decrypt message. No other key can decrypt the
message. Every communicating party needs just a key pair for
communicating with any number of other communicating
parties. Once someone obtains a key pair, he /she can
communicate with anyone else. RSA is a well known public key
cryptography algorithm and was one of the first great advances
in public key cryptography. Even if it is efficient algorithm it is
vulnerable to attackers. With the help of all brute force attacks
hacker can obtain private key.Many improvements has been done
to improve RSA like BATCH RSA, MultiPrime RSA, MultiPower
RSA, Rebalanced RSA, RPrime RSA etc.
As craze of internet is increasing exponentially, it is used for
email, chatting, transferring data and files from one end to other.
It needs to be a secure communication among the two parties [4].
This paper focuses on file transfer using Secure RSA, which
eliminates some loopholes of RSA that might prevent a hacker
from stealing and misuse of data. This paper also presents
comparison between RSA file transfer and Secure RSA file
transfer.
Keywords: file transmission, RSA algorithm, public key
cryptography, private key cryptography
I. INTRODUCTION
In the current time, when the Internet provides essential
communication between millions of people and is being
increasingly used as a tool for ecommerce, security becomes
a tremendously important issue to deal with. Internet is often
used to upload web pages and other documents from a
private development machine to public webhosting servers.
Transfer of files like banking transactions e-shopping,
tenders etc need special authenticated mechanism. As a
communications and transmission of files over internet has
increased exponentially since last few years, there is need of
security in such file transfer. One of the solutions to secure
communication is cryptography. It is the process of
converting plain text into encrypted text and decrypt cipher
text to plain text at other end.
In a distrusted medium cryptography becomes essential
part of secure communication. There are two types of
cryptographic algorithm to accomplish these goals:
symmetric cryptography, asymmetric cryptography. The
initial unencrypted data is referred as normal text.
Manuscript received on February, 2013.
Rajan.S.Jamgekar, Asst.Professor, NBNSCOE, Solapur, India.
Geeta Shantanu Joshi, Asst.Professor, MMCOEP, India.
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It is encrypted into cipher text with a cryptographic
algorithm, which will in turn be decrypted into usable
plaintext. In symmetric cryptography single key is used for
encryption and decryption e.g. Data Encryption Standard
(DES) and Advanced Encryption Standards (AES).In
asymmetric algorithm different keys are used to encrypt and
decrypt the data.RSA is widely used in electronic
ecommerce protocols. With sufficiently long keys and the
use of up-to-date implementations; RSA is believed to be
totally secure.
There are two ways in which we can achieve security
1.encrypted file transfer 2.Strong secure protocol for
transmission of files.
RSA (Rivest, Shamir & Adleman) is asymmetric
cryptographic algorithm developed in 1977. It generates two
keys: public key for encryption and private key to decrypt
message [2].RSA algorithm consist of three phases, phase
one is key generation which is to be used as key to encrypt
and decrypt data, second phase is encryption, where actual
process of conversion of plaintext to cipher text is being
carried out and third phase is decryption, where encrypted
text is converted in to plain text at other side.
As a public key is used for encryption and is well known
to everyone and with the help of public key, hacker can use
brute force method to find private key which is used to
decrypt message.
Secure RSA prevents files from hackers and help safe
transmission of files from one end to other [2].
In this paper we introduce an algorithm that is a
modification to the existing RSA algorithm. In our
algorithm we have eliminated the need to send product of
two random prime numbers in the public key. Further we
have replaced the role of n in encryption and decryption by
an integer.
This paper is organized as follows: In section 2, we give a
brief review of existing asymmetric algorithms; RSA File
Transmission is presented in section 3. In section 4, we have
presented Implementation of RSA algorithm. Difference
between RSA and MREA is presented in section 5; we give
the conclusion in section 6.
II. RELATED WORK
Cryptography is a process which is associated with
scrambling plaintext (ordinary text, or clear text) into cipher
text (a process called encryption), then back again to plain
text (known as decryption). The key feature of asymmetric
cryptography system is encryption and decryption procedure
are done with two different keys - public key and private
key. Private Key cannot be derived with help of public key
that provides much strength to security of cryptography.
This is one main difference between symmetric and
asymmetric cryptography, but that difference makes whole
process different. This difference is small but it is enough
that it has implications throughout the security. Mainly,
symmetric cryptography is seen as faster, more lightweight,
 File Encryption and Decryption Using Secure RSA
and better suited for applications that have a lot of data to
transfer, while at the same time, it is known to be less secure
and more open to wider areas of attacks because of
maintenance of a private key required. This drawback is
removed by asymmetric cryptographic algorithm discussed
in following section.
Plain Text Plain Text
Cipher
Encryption Text Decryption
Figure 1. Symmetric Cryptography
Plain Text Plain Text
Encryption Decryption
with public Cipher with
key Text Private key
Figure 2. Asymmetric Cryptography
Elliptic Curve Cryptosystem (ECC)
Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) was discovered in
1985 by Victor Miller (IBM) and Neil Koblitz as an
alternative mechanism for implementing public key
cryptography. Elliptic curve cryptography (ECC) can
provides the same level and type of security as RSA but
with much shorter keys. Elliptic curve cryptography
(ECC) is an approach of public-key cryptography based on
the algebraic structure of elliptic curves over finite fields.
Advantage of Elliptic curve cryptography is the public key
and private keys have smaller size. The computation is fast
as compared to other method and also it needs less storage
space. Whereas the drawback of EC curves generation is
complex, and difficult to implement a sustainable ECC
algorithm [10]. However, implementers can rely on third
parties for curves, which can be validated [13].
ElGamal system
The ElGamal system is a public-key cryptosystem based on
the discrete logarithm problem [9]. It consists of both
encryption and signature algorithms. The ElGamal signature
algorithm is similar to the encryption algorithm in that the
public key and private key have the same form; however,
encryption is not the same as signature verification [10], nor
is decryption the same as signature creation [10] .Signature
creation depends on the ElGamal signature algorithm. The
main disadvantage of ElGamal is the need for randomness,
and its slower speed (especially for signing). Another
potential disadvantage of the ElGamal system [10] is that
message expansion by a factor of two takes place during
encryption [11]. However, such message expansion is
negligible if the cryptosystem is used only for exchange of
secret keys ElGamal encryption is used in the free GNU
Privacy Guard software [20], recent versions of PGP, and
other cryptosystems [12]. ElGamal is not semantically
secure.
Digital Signature Standard [14]
A digital signature is represented in a computer as a string of
binary digits. A digital signature [14] is computed using a
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set of rules and a set of parameters such that the identity of
the signatory and integrity of the data can be verified. An
algorithm provides capability to generate and verify
signatures. Signature generation [14] makes use of a private
key to generate a digital signature. Signature verification
[14] makes use of a public key which corresponds to, but is
not the same as, the private key [14][15]. Each user
possesses a private and public key pair. Public keys [14] are
assumed to be known to the public in general. Private keys
are never shared. Anyone can verify the signature [14] of a
user by employing that user's public key. Signature
generation [14] can be performed only by the possessor of
the private key.
The advantages of this system are:
 The length of signature is shorter.
 The key generation is faster.
 The processing time cost is less.
Drawbacks of DSS are
 DSS and RSA are not compatible.
 The verification process is slower than RSA.
Diffie-Hellman key agreement protocol
Diffie-Hellman key exchange (D-H) is a cryptographic
protocol that allows two parties that have no prior
knowledge of each other to establish together a shared secret
key over an insecure communications channel [1]. Then
they use this key to encrypt subsequent communications
using a symmetric-key cipher. The scheme [16] was first
published publicly by Whitfield Diffie and Martin Hellman
in 1976, Diffie-Hellman key agreement [17] itself is an
anonymous (non-authenticated) key agreement protocol [1],
it provides the basis for a variety of authenticated protocols
[21], and is used to provide perfect forward secrecy in
Transport Layer Security's short-lived modes as in. In the
original description papers, the Diffie-Hellman exchange
[17] by itself does not provide authentication of the
communicating parties and is thus susceptible to a man-in-
the-middle attack [14]. An attacking person in the middle
may establish two different Diffie-Hellman key exchanges,
with the two members of the party "A" and "B", appearing
as "A" to "B", and vice versa, allowing the attacker to
decrypt [23] (and read or store) then re-encrypt the
messages passed between them. [23] A method to
authenticate the communicating parties to each other is
generally needed to prevent this type of attack [16]. The
Diffie-Hellman algorithm depends for its difficulty of
computing discrete logarithms. Secure Sockets Layer
(SSL)/Transport Layer Security (TLS), Diffie-Hellman
protocol is used in Secure Shell (SSH), Internet Protocol
Security (IPSec), Public Key Infrastructure (PKI).
III. RSA FILE TRANSMISSION
RSA is widely used in encrypted connection, digital
signatures and digital certificates core algorithms.
Public key algorithm invented in 1977 by Ron Rivest, Adi
Shamir and Leonard Adleman (RSA)[7]. It is the main
operation of RSA to compute modular exponentiation.
Since RSA is based on arithmetic modulo large
numbers, it can be slow in constraining environments
[18]. Especially, when RSA decrypts the cipher text and
generates the signatures, more computation capacity and
time will be required. Reducing modulus in modular
exponentiation is a technique to speed up the RSA
decryption. The security of RSA comes from integer
 International Journal of Emerging Science and Engineering (IJESE)
ISSN: 2319–6378, Volume-1, Issue-4, February 2013
factorization problem. RSA algorithm is relatively easy to
understand and implement RSA algorithm is based on the
theory of a special kind of reversible arithmetic for modular
and exponent RSA is used in security protocols such as
IPSEC/IKE, TLS/SSL, PGP, and many more applications
[2][7]. The public and private keys are functions of a pair of
large prime numbers and the necessary activities required to
decrypt a message from cipher text to plaintext using a
public key is comparable to factoring the product of two
prime numbers.
RSA File Transmission Algorithm can be summarized as
follows:
1. Generate the asymmetric keys with required digits.
2. Save and load the key, the key is saved as plain text.
3. Use specified key to encrypt any file with RSA
algorithm.
4. Encrypted files can be loaded and decrypted with the
specified key to restore the original file.
Secure RSA File Transmission
MREA is an asymmetric-key cryptosystem [20], meaning
that for communication, two keys are required: a public key
and a private key. Furthermore, unlike RSA [10], it is one-
way, the public key is used only for encryption [10], and the
private key is used only for decryption [10] [19]. Following
is a key generation algorithm for MREA cryptosystem [19].
We have removed the drawback using Modified RSA
(MERA)[19] for safe transmission of file from one user to
other.
Secure RSA File Transmission Algorithm can be
summarized as follows
1. Choose four large prime numbers p, q, r and s randomly
and independently of each other. All primes should be
of equivalent length.
2. Compute n = p x q, m= r x s, φ= (p-1) x (q-1) and λ=(r-
1) x(s-1).
3. Choose an integer e, 1 < e < φ such that
Gcd (e, φ) =1
4. Compute the secret exponent d, 1 < d < φ, such that e x
d mod φ =1.
5. Select an integer g=m+1.
6. Compute the modular multiplicative inverse:
µ=λ-1 mod m.
The public (encryption) key is (n, m, g, e).
The private (decryption) key is (d,  ,  )
Encryption:
Let F be a file to be encrypted where the contents of file are
taken into string S.
Select random number r, where r < m.
Compute cipher text as: c=gs^emodn x rm mod m2.
Decryption
Compute original message:
S= (((c λ mod m2-1)/m) x  mod m) d mod n.
IV. IMPLEMENTATION
The algorithm is implemented in JAVA. Difficulty of
implementation mainly depends of the platform,
applications and how much of the tools you need to
implement from scratch. The algorithm successfully
executes for .doc, .rtf, .txt, .java, all types of programmable
files and other files having write permission. The class
BigInteger is used to hold large prime numbers and keys so
that it difficult for hacker to guess or use brute force method
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to find. Generation of random prime numbers gives the
algorithm extra strength and efficiency. Euclid’s algorithm
is used to find GCD.
Modified RSA for secure file transmission algorithm is
divided in to four parts
1. Selecting file for transmission
2. Encryption of file
3. Transmission of encrypted file
4. Decryption of file at other end.
32 bit keys are used to generate prime numbers and keys.
The algorithm is tested and executed on 2.20 GHz Dual
Core processor and one GB RAM. The algorithm is
executed successfully on different types and different size of
files.
The summary of result is as follows
private key : 624256720618358291
ENCRYPT
ciphertext : 4961401011823809397
ciphertext : 419430400000000000
ciphertext : 550329031716248441
ciphertext : 2688592716557197975
ciphertext : 1792160394037
ciphertext : 100000000000
ciphertext : 31381059609
ciphertext : 31381059609
V. RSA AND MREA ALGORITHM
The algorithms (RSA & MREA) have many important
parameters affecting its level of security and speed. By
increasing the modulus length it is caused of increasing the
complexity of decomposing it into its factors. This also
increases the length of private key and hence difficulty to
detect the key. Another parameter is modular multiplicative
inverse µ where the modular multiplicative inverse µ is new
factor of private key, so it will be more difficult to choose µ
by trying all possible private keys (brute force attack) hence
the security also increases as well as difficulty of detecting
the private key. The RSA and MREA parameters are
changed one parameter at a time and the others are kept
fixed to study the relative importance. The results vary
depending on type of file and size of file.
VI. CONCLUSION
MREA algorithm is used to encrypt files and transmit
encrypted files to other end where it is decrypted. The
project works efficiently for small size while it consumes
time for large size of files. At a instant only one file can be
encrypted and transmitted. As a future work multiple file
encryption and decryption can be possible. It has broad
 File Encryption and Decryption Using Secure RSA
development prospects. The project application was
designed to take the efficiency and reusability into account.
Great level of security is achieved using this algorithm.
Modified RSA algorithm for file transmission algorithm can
be used where high security file transmission required in
public forums.

REFERENCES
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MAC Key Exchange Scheme” IEEE, Fourth International
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[4] Xi aowen Kang, Yingjie Yang, Xin Du,”A Disaster – Oriented
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[5] R . L. Rivest, A. Shamir and L. Adleman, "On Digital Signatures
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1970
[6] Sonal Sharma, Saroj Hiranwal, Prashant Sharma,"A NEW
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RSA",International Journal of Advances in Engineering &
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[9] "A public key cryptosystem and a signature scheme based on
discrete locarithms" TaherElGamal 1998,Springer-Verlag.
[10] http://www.rsa.com/rsalabs/node.asp?id=2255
[11] http://x5.net/faqs/crypto/q29.html
[12] http://www.princeton.edu/~achaney/tmve/wiki100k/docs/
ElGamal_encryption.html
[13] "Elliptic Curve Cryptography" Burt Kaliski.
[14] "DIGITAL SIGNATURE STANDARD (DSS)", Federal
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[15] “DIGITAL SIGNATURE STANDARD (DSS)”, Federal
InformationProcessing Standards Publication 186, 1994 May 19
[16] "DECISION SUPPORT USING MULTI SERVER
AUTHENTICATION",BHAVNA CHANDRAN
[17] http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diffie-Hellman_key_exchange
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LIU, Yunfei LI,Tong LI, Lin HAO,Journal of Computational
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Hellman.html
[20] http://www.princeton.edu/~achaney/tmve/wiki100k/docs/
ElGamal_encryption .html
[21] https://docs.fedoraproject.org/enUS/Fedora//html/Security_
Guide/apas02.html
[22] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merkle%E2%80%93Hellman_
knapsack_cryptosystem
[23] RFC 2631 – Diffie–Hellman Key Agreement Method E. Rescorla
June 1999.

Mr. Rajan S Jamgekar received Master of Engineering in

Computer Science and Engineering with specialization in
Computer engineering from Walchand College of
Engineering, Sangali Maharastra-India He has 6 years of
experience in teaching. His current research interest areas
are Cryptography and Network. He has authored and co-
authored more than 10 technical papers published in various prestigious
national/international journals and referred conference, symposium,
workshop proceedings.

Mrs.Geeta Shantanu Joshi received Master of

Engineering in Computer Science and Information
Technology with specialization in Computer engineering
from VIT, Pune Maharastra-India She has 10 years of
experience in teaching. Her current research interest areas
are Cryptography and Information security. She has
authored and co-authored more than 12 technical papers published in
various prestigious national/international journals and referred conference,
symposium, workshop proceedings.

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